In testing the WordPress plugin Login LockDown I found myself having been locked out of my own blog! At least I know the plugin is working.

I wanted to get back into my blog right away and not wait the hour required.I also didn’t want to bother with trying to log in from a different IP address. I still had admin access to the box hosting the wordpress site in question.

I couldn’t find any documentation on their plugin page about how to do this. I looked at the plugin folder and only found the php file. I deduced that the settings are stored in the same database as the wordpress site itself.

Poking around the database I found two tables that most likely belonged to the plugin: wp_lockdowns and wp_login_fails (shame on the plugin author for not having a consistent naming convention for their database tables.)

I didn’t want to damage the plugin by mucking around in the database too much but I was able to find my IP address listed in wp_lockdowns. There is a column in there called “release_date”. Perfect.

To un-lock myself from the blog I simply had to issue this statement:

update wp_lockdowns set release_date="2014-11-15 15:43:00" where lockdown_IP="<IP address>";

Replace release_date with something in the past (or the current time.) Et voilà! You’re back in.